Happy Halloween!
Looks like I found this one a little late… maybe next year!
Picture taken from junie-moon.
Sue McKinley’s Real Estate Update
Sue McKinley, last year’s “Top Sales Agent” for Alain Pinel Realtors, is watching the trends and has offered some words as to why now might be a good time for you to buy.
Sue says, “Bay area home sales are up 45% over 2007 and the median home price fell to $400,000. There have been two interest rate reductions in the last few weeks, along with home prices ‘on sale 30% off‘. Now is a great time to buy. Why wait for the market to bottom? You might just miss the bandwagon! Call me for more details or if you’d like to know how much home you qualify for.”
Sue helped my husband and I get into our recent investment, and she was very helpful and knowledgeable. She will help you every step of the way and keep you updated during the process. You can contact Sue at suemckinley[at]apr.com or 925.413.2866. Visit her website here.
Master Bedroom in Transition
Reader, Shannon, has a master bedroom that is currently in transition. She had just purchased new bedding and pillows and is looking to tie it all together. You can see the room as-is in the picture below.
Here are my observations:
I love the matching nightstands and lamps on either side, but the lamps are too small for the size of the room. Plus, they have no form.
The sconces look outdated. At best, they could be pulled down lower, much closer to the nightstands to make it more intimate. If they were spray-painted in a shiny bright color, that could help bring them to date.
The room lacks pattern and color.
Here is the inspiration board I put together for Shannon to show that her room has style, color and pattern. Here is how she can achieve that:
A pale green wall color would be a great way to modernize the zebra print. I suggest adding this subtle paint treatment (as seen on HGTV) with a lighter shade to add interest to the boxy room. {HGTV}
A green bench anchors the green in the room, and adds another formal touch. {target}
Formal pillows play nice with the bold zebra print and bring the brown and green together. {target and target}
Make the couch or bench look inviting with a mustard-yellow throw. {target}
The lamps next to the bed need to be weightier because the furniture in the room is weighty. These lamps are fun AND traditional, and they add warmth to the room. {wal-mart}
The large wall could use some color. This print ties the brown, yellows, greens and reds in one place. {cost plus world market}
Because the wall is large, the print may need some help filling the space. I chose two fabrics by Amy Butler in a vintage frame to help tie the colors together, and add weight to the focal wall above the bed. {fabric.com}
Glass fixtures add color and help set the tone. {bed bath and beyond}
Because the bedding is all one solid color, I suggest tucking a pattern underneath with fun sheets. These colors peeking out add personality to the room. {overstock.com}
What do you think? What would you add?
Fall Decorating
I love this fall decorating from m+m=l. I love that she’s taking the commercial out of the holidays -
I think it’s beautiful!
When to go Neutral
I love a chaos of colors and patterns in a room, but it’s important to know what should be flashy and what should be subtle. Shannon has a gorgeous new house that she is trying to make her own. The living room is ceramic tile, so she wanted a big rug to make it more comfortable.
She has fun style and loves warm colors and modern patterns. She was drawn to yellow and red patterned rugs, but for the price (some $1,000 and above), we decided she should stay neutral.
Chances are good that in a couple of years, she might get tired of the yellow pattern and want to move on. At $1,000 per rug, that won’t be cost-effective to replace.
Below is the image of the Pottery Rug she decided to purchase. With this tone-on-tone pattern, she can add colors in so many other ways in the room. And she doesn’t have to stick to those colors. She can switch out her accessories (pillows, candles, frames, vases) according to the season or her mood pretty inexpensively.
I put together an inspiration board for Shannon for ways to add color to her room, as well as interchangeable features that could help keep her room flexible.
Wall color – slightly musard yellow, flows well with the tan/yellow in the rest of her house, and looks great with many other colors: green, red, purple, brown…
Hanging wall vases – can be switched out for real flowers, faux flowers according to the seasons – spider mums for spring and poinsettias for Christmas {arhaus}
Side table – red looks great with everything, and brings life to her beige couch. Will be a great transition from the small pieces of red and fun greens in the kitchen {eboniste}
Hanging lamp – neutral and natural. This echoes the organic lines of the woodgrain rug, and gives some curvature to a boxy room. {target}
Floral pillows – also organic in pattern, ties the hanging lamp in with the rest of the room. {etsy}
Fireplace log bucket – Fireplaces are so cozy when you use them. If you aren’t using it all the time, making it look like it has been used can have a similar effect. {pottery barn}
Block candlesticks – Introduces a new shape, and is a great compliment to raw wood. {west elm}
Rugs
Somebody please put me out of my misery, and buy this rug. I love it, but it doesn’t match anything I own, nor do I have such a need. But it is too cute to be left on the shelf. Please buy it, put it under your black lacquer dining room set with fuchsia painted walls, take a picture, and email it to me.
This rug is at Ikea and Pottery Barn.
Meet Shelley’s Dining Room
Shelley has a beautiful house with warm colors and rustic accents. Her dining room, however, has been pushed to the bottom of the list. Below are pictures of the dining room before she purchased the home, and then its current state. She had a cut-out window created in one wall to open the room up and allow her to see her children playing while she is with the ‘grown-ups’ in the dining room.
Below I have put together a few ‘inspiration rooms’ that Shelley likes and can help us choose the right pieces for dining room.
This is the ‘inspiration board’ that I put together for Shelley. It has my suggestions for the room, including:
1. Warm pumpkin color for the walls. (This has been Shelley’s vision and will tie her warm beige sitting room with her sage green kitchen nicely)
2. Dark chocolate rug, to weight the room and make it cozy {hillsdale home}
3. Earthy pendant lamp – ties in with her beautiful tree mural in the neighboring room, color will look great with warm pumpkin wall color. {pier 1}
4. Amy Butler fabric for dining room chair pads. Introduces green color and dark cushions make for kid-friendliness. {fabric.com}
5. Wouldn’t it be cute if each dining chair had a rectangular lumbar pillow? This would make the dining room homey, add color, texture and comfort! {west elm}
6. I can’t get enough of the candlesticks – great for color and intimate lighting. {pottery barn}
7. Cream striped curtains add height to the room, and evens out the saturated colors. {target}
8. Beautiful pumpkin-colored boroque salad plates for fun {pottery barn}
Now, these aren’t requirements, they are inspiration. So what do you think? What would you add?
Send me pictures of your home, and I’ll create an inspiration board for you! Email your pictures to ohbrooke{at}gmail.com.
How many people
does it take to hang a group of pictures? My husband, sister and mom helped me hang the pictures above my sofa, and here is how we did it:
Picture groups are a great way to fill a big wall, save money on art, hang pieces that mean something to you, and bring color into a room. These frames are filled with scrapbook paper.
Condo Chronicles: Picture Wall
My hallway was looking pretty boring (as most hallways do) and my friend Shannon pointed out that we didn’t have any pictures of us hanging in the house. (Anybody else not like pictures of yourself?) So I decided to make a picture wall at the end of our itty bitty hall.
I took frames that I already had, (you know it’s not like me to spend money on something like this when I’ve got scraps that can be repurposed), and spray-painted a couple to help with the color palette. The frames are all different in size and color, don’t match up symmetrically, and have no rhyme or reason. Thrown together, free, and perfect.
Thanks for the instigating Shannon!
Condo Chronicles: The Guest Bedroom
My extremely talented mother made me some gorgeous curtains for my much-neglected guest bedroom. This teeny-tiny room is home to a queen-sized bed, an adorable re-vamped vintage dresser, and every other posession I own that I’m not quite sure what to do with. Well, her beautiful drapes have left me with no option: I must do them justice and finish the room. I’m calling it my flea-market bedroom, because the pieces in the room are rare, well-loved and unique!
Also, see the pillows my mom whipped up with some scrap fabric I had, and a burlap pillow I made to compliment them.
Now, I need to pick a paint color and a finish. I, of course, cannot just paint a solid wall color because, well, it’s just not how I work. I like too many colors, too many patterns, and to paint a solid color would put me to sleep. I was a smart and coservative homeowner with my cremes and beiges in the other rooms, but with a guest bedroom, it’s time to have a little fun. Below are some swatch ideas, and I’ll be looking for pattern ideas. Hint: I think a painted headboard is in store.
Notice my colors aren’t too vibrant – I’ll be stuffing that room chock full of colors and patterns, and I don’t need the walls competing.
Images from Benjamin Moore’s Virtual Fan Deck
2 for 1 Furniture
My favorite kind of furniture is dual purpose furniture. This would almost be organizational overload because I would have to pick the perfect things for this perfect storage opportunity. BUT – How great would this be?!? (I found this product at eco-friendly inhabitat.com)
And, what if it looked like THIS?
This was paper Mod Podged onto the stair, but I think this might be a destructive method. Better would be wallpaper where there are solutions to remove it down the road, best would be paint, because you can always repaint.
pictures from design*sponge and inhabitat.com.